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Recap / Supernatural S02 E02 "Everybody Loves a Clown"

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Recap of Supernatural
Season 2, Episode 2:

Everybody Loves A Clown

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Mom, you know these guys?

Sam: [to Dean] About me and Dad. I'm sorry that the last time I was with him I tried to pick a fight. I'm sorry that I spent most of my life angry at him. I mean, for all I know he died thinking that I hate him. So, you're right. What I'm doing right now, it's too little. It's too late. [pause] I miss him, man. And I feel guilty as hell. And I'm not all right. Not at all. But neither are you. That much I know.

Written by John Shiban.

Directed by Philip Sgriccia.

Airdate: October 5, 2006.

Sam and Dean meet a friend of their father who owns the Harvelle Roadhouse in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She tells them about a case in Medford, Wisconsin, involving a circus clown spotted before vicious murders.


The brothers are still reeling from their father's death. While pursuing their father's research on the Yellow-Eyed Demon, Sam and Dean discover the Roadhouse, a bar frequented by hunters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Ellen Harvelle owns the Roadhouse. Her daughter Jo works there. Ash is a regular patron and a genius who offers to help track the Yellow-Eyed Demon. Ellen has collected information on a rakshasa, a supernatural creature that takes the form of a clown in a circus in Medford, Wisconsin. Sam and Dean take the case, forcing them to work at a carnival.

Body count:

For this episode = 4 humans and 1 rakshasa.

For the series so far = At least 149 humans; 11 ghosts; 3 vampires; 1 demon; 1 god; 1 rakshasa; 1 rawhead; 1 shapeshifter; 1 shtriga; 1 wendigo.


Tropes appearing in this episode:

  • Amusement Park of Doom: Cooper Carnival.
  • Big Bad: Barry Papazian is the rakshasa killing children's parents.
  • Bonding over Missing Parents: Jo lost her father when she was young, which comes up when she is talking with Dean.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Ash may be a genius, but he has lots of quirks:
    • He first appears passed out on a pool table and sleeping through a fight.
    • He has a mullet, an earring in his left ear, and wears a vest without a shirt.
    • He lapses into Spock Speak interspersed with profanity.
    • He drinks the rest of Dean's beer after Dean leaves it on the bar.
  • Continuity Nod:
  • Curse Cut Short:
    Ash: Clowns? What the f—
  • Cute Bruiser: Jo Harvelle.
    Dean: [to Jo] You're not gonna hit me again, are you?
  • '80s Hair: Ash's mullet.
    Dean: I, uh, I dig the haircut.
    Ash: All business up front, party in the back.
  • Genius Bruiser: Ash was kicked out of MIT for fighting.
  • Good-Guy Bar: The Harvelle's Roadhouse.
  • Hall of Mirrors: In the funhouse.
  • Horror Hunger: The rakshasa eats flesh.
  • Idiot Ball: Apparently, there are at least 3 kids who don’t see anything wrong with letting a creepy looking clown into their house in the middle of the night.
  • Ignore the Disability:
    • Dean talking to the blind knife thrower:
      Dean: Excuse me, we're looking for a Mr. Cooper, have you seen him around?
      Knife thrower: [pulling off his glasses to show cataract eyes] What is that, some kind of joke?
    • He then compounds the problem with a little person:
      Dwarf: Hey buddy, what's your problem?
      Dean: Nothing, it's just a little misunderstanding.
      Dwarf: Little?! You son of a bitch!
  • Invisible to Adults: The rakshasa.
  • Knife-Throwing Act: Luckily for Dean, the rakshasa seems more interested in pinning Dean to the wall by his clothes, than causing fatal cuts.
  • Kryptonite Factor: The rakshasa can be killed with a brass knife.
  • Little People Are Surreal
  • Lonely Funeral: Only his sons are at John Winchester's funeral.
  • Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: This trait seems to be common in the hunter community.
    Jo: You know, I thought you were gonna toss me some cheap pickup line. [Dean chuckles, embarrassed] Most hunters come through that door think they can get in my pants with some...pizza, a six-pack, and side one of Zeppelin IV.
  • Ludicrous Precision:
    Ash: But it's gonna take time, uh, give me...fifty-one hours.
  • Mangst:
    Dean: [to Sam] You know what? You're right. Come here. I'm gonna lay my head gently on your shoulder. Maybe we can cry, hug, and maybe even slow dance.
  • Monster Clown: The rakshasa appears as a clown to get children to let it into their homes. Then it kills the parents.
  • Morton's Fork: Freaks of the Freakshow exhibit found themselves to be on the bad end of this. On the one hand, they're clearly exploited by Ringleaders to people to be laughed at, mocked, or jeered. From the perspective of the ringmaster, the Freakshows were used to give people like them homes and places to go where they couldn't be accepted by anybody else; and that without freakshows; the various freaks of the world would end up locked away in asylums or sanitariums for the rest of their lives.
  • Must Be Invited: This is why the rakshasa appears to the children as a clown.
  • Not-So-Imaginary Friend: The parents think the clown is a product of childish imagination.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Dean starts to hit on Jo, but does not follow through as he is still grieving for his father.
    • At the end, when he starts hitting the Impala.
  • Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: When Jo presses a rifle against Dean's back:
    Dean: Oh, God, please let that be a rifle.
    Jo: No, I'm just real happy to see you.
  • Percussive Therapy: Dean taking a crowbar to a car's window and then smashing up the Impala's trunk.
  • Portent of Doom:
    Ash: There are non-parametrics, statistical overviews, prospects and correlations, I mean...damn! They're signs. Omens. Uh, if you can track 'em, you can track this demon. You know, like crop failures, electrical storms...You ever been struck by lightning? It ain't fun.
  • Prophet Eyes: The blind knife thrower.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Dean's reaction to Ash's appearance.
      Dean: You've gotta be kidding me, this guy's no genius. He's a Lynyrd Skynyrd roadie.
    • Jo seems to have been on the receiving end of Mike Damone's 5-point plan in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
    • Sam has a childhood fear of the mascot of McDonald's.
      Dean: I mean, come on, you still bust out crying whenever you see Ronald McDonald on the television.
    • Ash makes a reference to Pink Flamingos:
      Ash: I'm on it like Divine on dog dookie.
  • Single Tear: Dean as he watches his father's body burn.
  • Southern-Fried Genius: Ash.
  • Taking Up the Mantle: Sam now seems determined to do what their father would have wanted, despite often being at odds with John while he was alive.
  • Tick Tock Tune: "Time Has Come Today" by The Chambers Brothers plays over The Road So Far.
  • Titled After the Song: By Gary Lewis & The Playboys.
  • Viking Funeral: The Winchester brothers burn their father's body on a funeral pyre.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Dean references this when Sam announces that the Monster of the Week is a clown:
    Dean: I know what you're thinking, Sam. Why did it have to be clowns?
    • Sam is visibly nervous when he sees a little person in a clown outfit, has to sit in a clown chair, and passes two hobo clowns.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: The rakshasa kills the parents, but leaves the child unharmed.

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